Chika Gentou Gekiga: Shoujo Tsubaki (Midori)

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Maiden Camellia, Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show

Japanese: 地下幻燈劇画少女椿

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Information

Type: Movie

Episodes: 1

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: May 2, 1992

Producers: Imagica

Licensors: None found, add some

Studios: Mippei Eigeki Kiryuukan

Source: Manga

Genres: Drama, Horror

Themes: Gore, Historical

Duration: 47 min.

Rating: R+ - Mild Nudity

Statistics

Score: 4.74¹ (scored by 34,061 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #12961²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #2685

Members: 65,899

Favorites: 398

Resources

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ANN

Synopsis

In the 1920s, a poverty-stricken 12-year-old girl named Midori resorts to selling camellias in the slums of Tokyo. Midori finds little success until, one day, she is approached by a gentleman who offers his sympathy and aid. When her bedridden mother succumbs to an illness, and with no one else to turn to, Midori visits the man's address. To her horror, she discovers that she has been conned into joining his circus troupe, Aka Neko Za—a traveling freak show consisting of vulgar and deformed performers.

Midori compares her new fairground lifestyle to hell. Not only is she responsible for caring for her colleagues and cleaning up after them, but she also is frequently belittled and cruelly abused. Suffering and uncertain of what will become of her, she finally begins to feel at ease when Wonder Masamitsu, a master illusionist, joins the lineup. Smitten by Midori's beauty and innocence, Masamitsu takes her under his wing; but even as their love grows, dark times loom ahead for Midori and her fellow freaks.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

The "Shoujo Tsubaki" or "Camellia Girl" character was a common stock protagonist regularly featured in Japanese street theater throughout the 1920s. The character typically manifested as a young and impoverished female adolescent who sold camellia flowers on the streets. One incarnation of the character features in a short story, also titled "Shouji Tsubaki," within an anthology—eventually repurposed as a full-length graphic novel by Suehiro Maruo, known as Mr. Arashi’s Amazing Freak Show in English. This, in turn, was adapted into the animated film Chika Gentou Gekiga: Shoujo Tsubaki, which roughly translates to "Underground Projected Dramatic Pictures: The Camellia Girl." The film is known simply as Midori in releases outside of Japan.

Aside from the music, sound effects, and an uncredited voice cast, the entirety of the film was created almost exclusively by Hiroshi Harada under the pseudonym "Hisaaki Etsu," who handled directing, scripting, drawing, and animating. Composer J. A. Seazer assisted with the soundtrack. Production began in 1987, the film took five years to produce, and it consists of over five thousand hand-drawn sheets of animation. Due to the film’s graphic imagery, the production received no sponsors and was instead funded using Harada’s life savings and retirement fund.

The early marketing for the film was deliberately cryptic, and Harada intended for it to only be viewed at specially held screenings. The film premiered in May 1992 under a large red tent at the Mitake Jinja Shinto Shrine in Tokyo. It was accompanied by realtime special effects, including confetti and smoke bombs. Underground theater group Aka Neko Za performed stunts from the film and interacted with the audience throughout its duration. These performances would complement the film in succeeding years, before its ban.

Chika Gentou Gekiga: Shoujo Tsubaki was screened unedited until 1994, when Japanese film censor board Eirin made 26 cuts and alterations. From 1994 to 2006, the film could only be viewed in its heavily censored state at film festival screenings and theaters. During this time, there were no home releases.

In 1999, the film was screened at the San Sebastián Horror and Fantasy Film Festival in Spain. When the tapes were returned to Japan, they were seized and destroyed by Japanese Customs at Narita Airport; it was thereafter banned from domestic imports and screenings in Japan. Nonetheless, it was specially screened at the Tokyo International Fantastic Film Festival in 2004, where it won first place in a fan vote. Directly after, a ban was placed on the film at the request of the police, which lasted eight more years in Japan.

In 2006, the French company Ciné Malta obtained the rights to release the film on DVD in its original form. This was the first time the uncensored version of Midori was accessible since screenings before 1994. The DVD also included English, Spanish, Italian, and German subtitles, as well various features—including a recorded interview with Harada and a 16-page booklet. However, the tapes initially sent to France were confiscated as "obscene material" at De Gaulle Airport due to cautionary notices attached to the shipments by Narita Airport. As of the 2010s, the film was screened frequently throughout Asia and Europe—especially the latter—but never in the United States, due to import laws regarding certain types of pornography.

In 2013, the original 16 mm negatives of the film were discovered in a warehouse belonging to Japanese post-production company IMAGICA. The film was remastered and screened in digital format, including at the Kanazawa Film Festival that same year. Regardless, Chika Gentou Gekiga: Shoujo Tsubaki will forever be notorious for its taboo content and complex history. It is in some regards considered lost media and is also considered one of the most controversial anime due to being banned almost everywhere, including in Japan.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:

Shoujo Tsubaki

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Midori

Main

Naka, Minako
Japanese

Wonder Masamitsu

Main

Morishita, Norihiko
Japanese

Tokkuriji, Muchisute

Supporting

Kanabun

Supporting

Snake Woman

Supporting

Midori's Mother

Supporting

Jirou

Supporting

More staff

Staff

Harada, Hiroshi

Director, Episode Director, Script, Key Animation

Maruo, Suehiro

Original Creator

Seazer, J. A.

Music

Asanuma, Kouichi

Sound Effects

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Opening Theme

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Ending Theme

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Reviews

Sep 23, 2023

amealworm

Recommended

Shoujo Tsubaki is wonderful! it is quite a surreal film with its visuals, but it may be quite disturbing for some as it contains lots of distressing topics. even if some don't like the film itself, they may still find themself appreciating the story behind it. which is equally, if not more interesting than the film itself.
I recommend this film to those who are artsy and interested in the strange and unsavory. And also, to those who can appreciate someone's hard, HARD work.
side note: this film does not glorify abuse or excuse it, like many have been saying. having bad things in a piece ...

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Sep 22, 2023

jeffersondkid

Mixed Feelings

I'm kind of disappointed by it; I expected more. Maybe the manga is better; I will check it out.
The characters, even though a little shallow, were okay.
The setting and plot are pretty average.
The problem is the animation, especially in the beginning, is straight up a slideshow.
The pacing, execution, and presentation of the plot are pretty bad. It feels too disjointed. It gets better halfway through, though, and the animation also gets way better.
Even the characters show a little more depth, but the first half is a slog, and the payoff is just not worth it. If you came for the ...

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Nov 22, 2023

Neolavender123

Not Recommended

This anime is objectively bad, even without adding grotesque imagery to the equation.

[Plot: 1 star for 'Apalling']

Let's start with the plot, shall we? Shoujo Tsubaki is a 47-minute movie divided into three acts. The 1st act serves to set up the rest of our MC's (Midori's) sufferings and life journey, but the plot points of this 1st act can be told only within 5 minutes, while the rest serves as mindless torture porn. There's no suspense, (IMO) no thrill, no exploration of the characters (for both the MC and side characters), and I think this act will be the hardest part for anyone to watch.

Surprisingly, ...

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